The Tale Of Kitsuna

“Huh, she’s already awake?” I said, looking at the tomato girl next to An on her bed.

“...” Surprisingly, she didn’t say anything back, just looked down, ashamed for some reason.

“Please tell you at least have food for me?” Kayda said when I was about to ask about it.

“Of course, cooked and fatty just like you like it,” I said, smiling taking out a giant bowl of cooked meat.

“Did you ask her to get you food?” The guild master said, annoyed, glaring at Kayda.

“Sheesh, calm down, dude. You are just going to make me take my time even more.” I said, sitting down next to Kayda on a chair close to the bed.

“Kitsu, can we please get down to business. We don’t know what that fire means.” Kayda said, not sounding very serious about it.

.....

“True, we don’t, but we can make a guess at what it is,” I said with a rib in my mouth.

“That’s true. We know we are working with a devil cult, so it should have something to do with devils.” An mumbled, nodding along.

“Yes, and I am certain we can find that answer in these,” I said, taking out the bookshelf I found.

“This is?” The guild master said, looking at the books confused.

“Start reading, and you will find out. Try starting with summoning first,” I said, annoyed, taking a book off the shelf.

“Miss, we don’t have time for this. Those flames might change any minute.” the guild master said, frustrated.

“Those flames are only a start. When they disappear, something will happen, and the more you complain, the less we will know when that happens.”

“What makes you certain only when the flames go away something will happen.”

“... Gut feeling,” I said, not having anything else to say about it.

“Gut feeling!” The guild master shouted, glaring daggers at me.

“Ooh, I got something!” The tomato girl said happily.

“Hmm, what does it say,” I asked, intrigued.

“Fire summoning ritual.” The girl said, tilting her head.

“Fire summoning ritual? What does it say about the fire?” Kayda asked, glancing at me.

“It’s hard to explain. It looks like this.” She said, turning the book towards Kayda and me. Noticing the black fire one, I knew my hunch was correct that the fire in the fortress was the same as mine but way more potent and menacing.

“Hmm, Kitsu, if you will?” Kayda said, bumping my arm.

“What, why?” I said, surprised.

“We need to make certain it’s the same. Even with that picture, I am not sure they are the same.” Kayda explains, gesturing towards the book.

“Well, I can just tell you it’s the same as the one at the fortress.”

“They already saw your spear, and I saw you make it.” An said, taking the book from her daughter.

“Mom, I was reading that.” Ans’ daughter whined, puffing her cheeks.

“We saw what?” the guild master said with an inclined head.

“Her magic, of course. It was black flames. Didn’t you see it?” An explains, making me glare at her.

“No, I didn’t see. Show it to me again.” The guild master said, looking at me.

“No, not happening.”

“Okay, let’s forget about her fire magic. We have a big problem. That summoning ritual works on sacrifices.” An said with a severe expression.

“What sort of sacrifices?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the book in her hands.

“Humanoid, monster, it doesn’t matter. Any living thing will work.”

“What!?” Everyone exclaimed in unison.

“Hmm, but if it is like there must be some negatives about it. seeing as they don’t use it often.” I asked, putting my hand on my chin sage-like.

“Correct, the main downside of it is that it doesn’t summon real devils but only thralls and seekers at most.” An said, making everyone sigh in relief except me not knowing anything about devils.

“What sort of monsters is that?” I asked, confused.

“Thralls are humanoid shape ghosts. They are black, so in the light, it’s quite easy to see them.” An explains revering to another book about monsters from the devil plain.

“the seekers are the big problem, though,” Kayda said with a thoughtful expression.

“why?”

“what I heard about them is that they are floating eyeballs with a lot of different appearances and powers,” Kayda explains making, looking at her weirdly.

‘Floating eyeball, really.’ I thought dejectedly.

“Yes, there is the common ones are, a flying eyeball with batwings. Easy to deal with, but then there are the rock ones.” An explains ending with a downcast.

“What makes them so hard.”

“Seekers attack with darkness, and that eats away at you at a fast rate if it hits you. Now just imagine an eyeball floating in the air shooting balls of darkness at you with rocks floating around it protecting it.” Kayda said, shaking her head.

“Ooh, that... doesn’t really sound like a problem.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t sound like a problem!?” The guild master yelled, annoying me again.

“They need to shoot you with their darkness, right, so there should be a hole where they shoot it out of,” I said, shrugging.

“Yes, that’s correct.” An said, nodding.

“Do you know how small that hole will be? No one will be able to hit that shot with an arrow!” The guild master yelled again.

“Sheesh, you’re the most annoying dog I have ever met,” I said, flicking my ears a couple of times.

“I am done listening to uneducated brat!!” The guild master said, standing up walking out of the room.

“Fucken annoying how the hell is that pup a guild master.”

“I heard that!!”

“I don’t give a shit, you dumb pup! go look after your shitty adventures like a good puppy looking after his master!”

“...”

“Dumb bastard,” I said, folding my arms.

“...Wow, that’s something new.” The tomato girl said, looking at her mother.

“Yeah, I never heard someone disrespect him so much and still lived.”

“What are people too scared to tell him off.”

“Well, new guild members that disrespected his guild or him gets killed someway or other. Mostly it’s himself doing it.”

“And you never do something about it?”

“Why would I?” An said, shrugging.

“I don’t know. Maybe because he is killing technically innocent people!” I said loudly, annoyed.

“This is also the first time I heard that he kills people,” Kayda said, not sounding incredibly happy about it.

“Well, he does, and I don’t really care too much to stop it. Like it only happens once or twice a year at most.”

“And you let it go?”

“Yes, he gives more than he takes.”

“Sigh. I can’t really say it’s no good, can I?” I said, looking at Kayda.

“Now that I think about it. No, you can’t. We would have done the same for you.” Kayda said, patting my shoulder.

“In all fairness, the amount of disrespect the person gave him was enough to get him killed. So, it wasn’t just a little bit.” An said, putting the book down.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s get back to more important things. How do you kill thralls?

“You shoot them with magic, and they die.”

“That sounds easy.”

“You see, the problem comes with the amount. They duplicate every 5 seconds if not killed.” An said, having a heavy expression on again.

“Hmm, I might have a solution to them if the problem is numbers. They can’t jump right.”

“They can but not very high but don’t worry too much. They aren’t very smart.” An explains, looking at the book again.

.....

“Awesome, then my idea will work. Now for seekers, how do we deal with them? I think you can leave the rock ones to me as well.”

“I think I know what you want to do, but will you have enough mana.

“Yes, I will have enough if I use my storage the right way.”

“Okay, so you are finally going to use that weeks’ worth of magic practice projects.”

“For the other ones, we will get archers to get rid of them. They aren’t that fast, making them easy targets.” An said, nodding in satisfaction.

“Great idea, but you’re not coming,” I said, tilting my head at her.

“Of course, I am coming. This is my city.” An said, getting off the bed.

“Yeah, you’re injured. It will be best if you stay in bed,” Kayda said in a tone, making An sit back down.

“Yeah, don’t worry, we got this,” I said, smiling smugly.

“Sigh, at least Kayda will be there.” An said, ignoring me.

“Wha... fair enough,” I said, looking at Kayda.

“Ha-ha, let’s go before the summoning starts,” Kayda said, standing up.

“Cheers, guys, and you look after your mother.”

“Oh, before you go, where is our butler?”

“In a jail cell, why?” Kayda said, tilting her head back.

“Why is he there.” An asked, confused.

“He acted against me and was on his scroll with someone. I think he might be a traitor.”

“Nah, it was probably just him talking to his boyfriend.” The tomato girl said, waving it off.

“I will check into it to make certain it’s like that. Thank you.” An said, looking at her childlike she was dumb.

“Awesome, then we will you guys later when it’s over,” I said, taking the book from An before walking out with Kayda behind me.